r man's
doings.

"And what is this that you are at?" said she.

So he told her.

"Burn the good sheets!" she cried. "And where would I be with my two
hands? No, troth," said Aud, "not so long as your wife is above ground!"

"Good wife," said Finnward, "this is beyond your province. Here is my
word pledged and the woman dead I pledged it to. So much the more am I
bound. Let me be doing as I must, goodwife."

"Tilly-valley!" says she, "and a fiddlestick's end, goodman! You may
know well about fishing and be good at shearing sheep for what I know;
but you are little of a judge of damask sheets. And the best word I can
say is just this," she says, laying hold of one end of the goods, "that
if ye are made up to burn the plenishing, you must burn your wife along
with it."

"I trust it will not go so hard," says Finnward, "and I beg you not to
speak so loud and let the house folk hear you."

"Let them speak low that are ashamed!" cries Aud. "I speak only in
reason."

"You are to consider that the woman died in my house," says Finnward,
"and this was her last behest. In truth, goodwife, if I were to fail, it
is a thing that would stick long in my throat, and would give us an ill
name with the neighbours."

"And you are to consider," says she, "that I am your true wife and worth
all the witches ever burnt, and loving her old husband"--here she put her
arms about his neck. "And you are to consider that what you wish to do
is to destroy fine stuff, such as we have no means of replacing; and that
she bade you do it singly to spite me, for I sought to buy this bedding
from her while she was alive at her own price; and that she hated me
because I was young and handsome."

"That is a true word that she hated you, for she said so herself before
she wended," says Finnward.

"So that here is an old faggot that hated me, and she dead as a bucket,"
says Aud; "and here is a young wife that loves you dear, and is alive
forby"--and at that she kissed him--"and the point is, which are you to
do the will of?"

The man's weakness caught him hard, and he faltered. "I fear some hurt
will come of it," said he.

There she cut in, and bade the lads tread out the fire, and the lasses
roll the bed-stuff up and carry it within.

"My dear," says he, "my honour--this is against my honour."

But she took his arm under hers, and caressed his hand, and kissed his
knuckles, and led him down the bay. "Bubble-bubble-bubble!" says